Tag: art

When was the last time you felt ‘trapped’? In a situation or circumstance you didn’t want to be in, in a job you hated, in a group that left you feeling lonely, in a relationship or in a health situation that was difficult, or anything else? I am working on an artwork that invites people to anonymously share experiences from their life that left them feeling ‘trapped’. Hopefully, it will end up being meaningful and cathartic for everyone who participates. If you would like to contribute a bit of writing and a bit of your experience, read on.

I will be performing a piece called ‘The Feeling of a Space’ on the premises of National Art School, Sydney, Australia, where I am currently pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art, and I invite you to collaborate on this project.

For this performance, I have chosen a cell next to the painting studios that was once upon a time used to imprison criminals. I will stand in this cell and read out letters that various people have written to me in response to a question I have asked, and after each reading, the letter will be taped to the walls of the cell. The letters will be completely anonymous, so the writers need not sign their names on it. The question I am asking for people to respond by way of writing to, is to ‘describe a time in your life when you felt trapped inside a box’.

The answers can be anything from a few lines to a page, and need not be about being trapped in a physical space as much as about the ‘feeling’ of being trapped in a situation or circumstance. They can be as metaphorical, deep, meaningful, intense, painful, bizarre, strange, enigmatic or poetic as the people want it to be, or as various as the writers themselves. Art is a tool that artists use to express themselves, and in this way, ‘The Feeling of a Space’ becomes a collaborative artwork where many different artists and non-artists alike use the space to express themselves, and it becomes just a reminder of our shared humanity.

I am hoping to get responses from people from all ages and backgrounds, and from people all over the world.

To send in your entries, you can give me a handwritten letter or email me on artbyarushi@gmail.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you, and thanking you in advance for participating.

(Important Update: Comments are currently disabled on this post due to some website issues. To send in your entry, please email me on artbyarushi@gmail.com. If you would like to send an anonymous entry, please get in touch over email and we will work something out. Sorry for the inconvenience, trying to resolve this issue soon.)